The Big Meat Glue Ballyhoo

Last week, I posted a snide, little comment on the Real Fitness Nerd Facebook page slamming a recent call for transparency regarding transglutaminase, a "meat glue"used to stick smaller pieces of meat together. It's also used to thicken egg yolks, strengthen dough mixtures, thicken dairy products and improve yield in tofu production. Fancy!

My response to the headline "Consumers, senator demand 'meat glue' transparency" was "Spare me. You want change in the meat industry? Start with your own fridge."

In turn, reader Cameron shot back, "Why are you health types so libertarian about this stuff? More information for consumers is always a good thing. If the general public doesn't know that this stuff is in their food, how can they be expected to vote with their forks?"

I was little taken aback by this, in that I hardly consider myself a libertarian when it comes to food. I frequently use this blog to call for youth education and a general improvement of our nation's school lunch programs. Furthermore, it's no secret that I feel Ronald McDonald should be taken out behind the barn and shot, his corpse fed to the oppressed, hormone-addled pigs that make up a small percentage of the "meat" in a McRib.

However, homeboy has a point, so I'd like to take a moment to clarify. First off, let's take a look at what this junk is. According to the website GMO Compass:

Transglutaminases are enzymes that link proteins to each other. They are found, for example, in microorganisms and in the muscle tissue of fish, as well as in the liver and blood of mammals. They also are present in the human body and build highly molecular protein structures.

Would I eat it? Probably not, but as far as creepy food additives go, this one is pretty benign. However, describing them as "meat glue" definitely dials them up on the creep-o-meter. The whole thing just smacks as a publicity stunt staged by the dude who started the controversy, Senator Ted Lieu. Regarding his demand for transparency, of course consumer information is crucial, but when it comes to transglutaminase, it's already there. Just like any other ingredient, if it's in a packaged food, it must be listed in the ingredients. According to the USDA:

Products formed from pieces of whole muscle meat, or that have been reformed from a single cut, must disclose this fact on their label, as part of the product name, e.g., "Formed Beef Tenderloin" or "Formed Turkey Thigh Roast." The enzyme must also be listed in the product ingredient statement along with any other ingredients used in the product formulation. TG enzyme is not considered a processing aid that would be exempt from labeling. There are no exemptions to the USDA's mandatory labeling requirement for this product.

What Lieu is asking for, however, is transparency regarding "food suppliers, restaurants, and banquet facilities" who are much less regulated. According to this article, there's concern that glued-together meat has a much greater chance of containing pathogens than whole pieces of quality meat. While this is valid, restaurants tend to cook the hell out of meat, as to kill pathogens, so this isn't really an issue.

Again, I think this is just a publicity stunt. If Lieu really wanted to increase consumer safety, he'd start a campaign demanding that restaurants share how much refined salt and sugar, GMO butter, and oxidized PUFAs they pack into food. But he won't do that because 1) it's not sexy and 2) I don't think most people want to know.

Unless restaurants are required to list information like that, all the enzymic transparency in the world isn't going to help, so if you really want to eat safe, recognize that eating in restaurants is a dangerous activity akin to swimming with great white sharks, card counting in Vegas, and having sex with prostitutes in Bangkok, so enter at your own risk.

And if you don't want to take that risk, there's a lot of great food in your fridge.